Harmony Zhu

2024 GILMORE YOUNG ARTIST Harmony Zhu

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “a deeply musical soul and nimble technician… with utter naturalness and probing sensitivity” and the Times Union as “an impressive soloist, a sparkling and happy presence… unflappable,” Harmony Zhu is described by David Dubal as “part of the next great Golden Age of the piano.” In addition to winning the 2021 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and becoming the youngest artist on the YCA roster, Harmony has been a Young Steinway Artist since age 10, the youngest to be named one of the “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30” by CBC Music, and featured many times on NBC’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show, CBC News, National Public Radio’s From the Top, and CBS, among others, for her exceptional gifts in piano, composition, and chess.

Ms. Zhu has appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín, Albany Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Illinois Philharmonic, Aspen Philharmonic, Hawaii Symphony, Peoria Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, and Big Spring Orchestra, among others, with some of the most venerated and Grammy-Award-winning conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, John Giordano, and David Alan Miller. She has performed worldwide, often as the youngest invited to perform in festivals including the Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, Oxford Piano Festival, and Aspen Music Festival.

In 2022, she stepped in at 24-hour notice for the late maestro Alexander Toradze, performing Prokofiev Concerto No. 3 with the Illinois Philharmonic and Maestro Stilian Kirov. “As an 11th-hour stand-in the 16-year-old Canadian came, played and conquered in a barn-storming rendition of Prokofiev’s knuckle-busting warhorse,” observed the Chicago Classical Review. “Zhu more than lived up to her billing… the teen pianist displayed not only an airtight technique but power and arm strength that belied her slender frame… she showed her chops, blazing through the most clustered thickets of notes and rounding off with a lightning coda that drew extended premature applause from the Palos Heights audience… brought coruscating brilliance to the finale, ratcheting up the spiky bravura with arm sweeps up and down the keyboard and concluding in a pounding, edge-of-the-seat coda… Zhu clearly has both the stellar technique and musical insight to have a major professional career. Let’s hope she is back with the IPO—or CSO—soon.”

Ms. Zhu performed at the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Opening Night Gala Concert at the age of 10 playing Beethoven Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She toured with the Israel Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony at age 12. After her debut appearance as a soloist at the Ravinia Music Festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, she was invited back the following year by Marin Alsop to perform with Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

She performed at the Aspen Music Festival’s Benedict Music Tent with the Aspen Orchestra after winning the AMFS Concerto Competition when she was 12, and returned the following year to perform with the Aspen Philharmonic. Ms. Zhu made her debut in 2019 at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium following concerts at Carnegie Hall’s other halls over the years. She performed at Lincoln Center’s 60th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee Gala, sharing the stage with artists including Joshua Bell and Misty Copeland. She was the only student pianist to perform at the Juilliard Pre-College Centennial Gala Concert, the farewell gala for the former Juilliard president, Joseph Polisi, and the following year at the Juilliard Spring Gala.

Many music festivals, foundations, organizations, and orchestras have invited Harmony to record concerts and host events. In honor of International Piano Day, Harmony was featured on Classic FM to widespread acclaim. She performed in the Lang Lang International Music Foundation Gala Concert, “Lang Lang & Friends: Reaching Dreams Through Music,” broadcast globally, in addition to hosting a weekly “Concert Countdown Series” livestream on the Lang Lang Foundation’s social media pages leading up to the concert. She was featured in the Steinway & Sons Lunar New Year Concert and invited to record for the Steinway & Sons Spirio Catalog. The New Jersey Symphony also featured Harmony in their Lunar New Year Celebration Concert Series at the NJPAC. Since she was first featured on the award-winning show From the Top on Non National Public Radio at age 9, Harmony has been a frequent collaborator, starring in two of their most popular music videos, one of which was chosen as WQXR’s “19 of Our Favorite Internet Moments of 2018.”

With a musical sensitivity far beyond her age, Ms. Zhu has distinguished herself by consistently winning first prizes in piano competitions from an early age, and was the youngest winner of the 2018 Bachauer Scholarship Competition and Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition at age 12. She won the Grand Prize at the VI Chopin International Competition in Connecticut, in which she set records for both being the youngest winner in history and earning the highest mark ever at 99.8. At the age of six, she became the youngest winner ever to win the First Prize in the Canadian Music Competition, and the only participant to win the competition for three years in a row all from older age categories. Harmony studies with Emanuel Ax and Veda Kaplinsky. She started studying at Juilliard when she was eight and the same year became the youngest winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition.

As a chess prodigy, Ms Zhu has won numerous First Places in international and national chess tournaments and started playing in open tournaments with adults when she was six. She was awarded the title of Woman Candidate Master at age seven and holds the title of World Champion of her age group after winning the World Youth Chess Championships. She created a sensation when she was featured at The Simms/Mann Think Tank, an annual convening of leading neuroscientists from around the world on cutting-edge science related to the brain development of children. Apart from piano and chess, her greatest passion is visiting art museums and learning everything about art. She loves photography, reading, birdwatching, doodling, dancing, ping pong, badminton, swimming, and making fancy ice cream sundaes. As a voracious learner who excels with a passion for all academic areas, Harmony attends the prestigious Brearley School in New York (class of 2024).